Pages

Monday, September 28, 2009

I've just finished up the process of submitting a couple of proposals for PantheaCon 2010, for February next year. One is a discussion of the basics of creating Celtic Reconstructionist ritual. I'll have examples of the rituals our local group has done as well as solitary work that I do, with some thoughts for folks about using source materials in developing on-the-ground practice.

This sense of how to develop ritual is something that is a much-lamented lack in many parts of the CR community. People rarely talk or post about their or their group's rituals, so examples are few and far between. Many people don't even try, for fear of "doing it wrong." I'm hoping that by opening up the process and showing how our local group goes through its own trials and errors, its own successes and evolutions, it will help others find ways to allow themselves space for both research and creative innovation.

The other submission for this coming year is a panel discussion on Warrior Return rituals, focusing on the ritual that was done for me earlier this summer and that will be done for one of our members recently returned from Iraq. One of our panelists will be an ADF member who is both a disabled vet and a veterans advocate and social worker.

We'll be addressing issues of ritual reintegration of warriors into their communities when they return home, as well as giving a very nice example of a ritual brought together with texts from original Gaelic sources and innovative research. As someone who has experienced the ritual, I can speak to its effect on my own perceptions of self and community.

Taken together, a workshop on CR ritual construction and a panel on how one of these rituals was performed and how it serves the community will be a powerful statement of what CR can be.

What is imbas?

Imbas is an Old Irish word meaning poetic inspiration, with overtones of ecstatic mysticism. It is the heart of the practice of filidecht, the sacred poetic tradition of Ireland and Scotland.

A gift of the Goddess Brighid, it is found in the three cauldrons within each person. The cauldrons, turned through joy and sorrow, take the raw materials of our emotions and our lives and transform them into an alchemy of poetry and magic, opening our eyes to the Otherworlds and to poetic truth and power.